Children's & YA Services

April is Month of the Military Child

Ellsworth Air Force Base is just one area of military presence in South Dakota. In truth, military families are located throughout the state. Recruiters, ROTC instructors, reservists, and members of the Army and Air National Guard all call South Dakota home. This year, Operation: Military Kids would like to thank those families for their sacrifice during April, Month of the Military Child.

Operation: Military Kids is a collaborative effort between Army, 4-H, American Legion, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America with the purpose of providing local community support for the children of SD National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The state OMK office is housed within the SD Cooperative Extension Service, located at the South Dakota State University’s West River Ag Center.

We would like to ask the libraries of South Dakota to join us in thanking those families by hosting an event, a program, or a display. The focus of your event/display should be to educate, celebrate, or thank those that serve, or have served in the past, and their families. Examples of programs could include hosting a Hero Pack party, bringing in a speaker, or creating a display of resources for those military families in South Dakota. You can be as creative as you want to be and involve as many other community organizations as you want. This is open to every library in South Dakota - public, school, academic, or special.

Libraries that participate should write a short statement describing their event/program/display and how it fits into our theme, take a picture and send both in to Operation: Military Kids. We will take those descriptions and photographs and post them on our Web site www.operationmilitarykids.org.

In addition, the first 40 libraries that respond will receive two books - Night Catch by Barbara Ehrmantraut and A Paper Hug by Stephanie Skolmolski.

“Read to me!” Selecting books that strengthen pre-reading skills

By Marta Lemke, M.Ed., SDDOE Language Arts Curriculum Specialist

“Read to me!” is one of the most significant requests your child will ever make. Even if your infant cannot utter those words yet, believe me, they are asked. While your baby connects to your voice and the closeness you share, much needed skills begin to grow.

Children start developing pre-reading skills at birth. They must develop phonological awareness, vocabulary, narration, print motivation, print awareness and letter knowledge in order to learn to read. When children are read to as infants and toddlers, the desire to learn to read is sown and their responsiveness to developing those pre-reading skills is cultivated.

Choosing age-appropriate books for reading time may seem daunting. Here are some tips to help:

Don’t be frustrated if your child wants you to read books over and over again. Repetition helps develop all six pre-reading skills. Take advantage of it. Mix things up a bit by focusing on the development of one of the skills each time you read:

Pause to let your child complete the sentence.

Point out words that appear more than once.

Ask questions like “What is happening on this page?” or “What do you see?”

Point out illustrations that start with a specific letter.

Be the listener; have your child “read” to you.

Visit your local library often. Ask about new books they have. The librarian sees books every day and loves to help. While you’re there, don’t forget to pick up the State Library’s “Read to me!” growth chart and pamphlet. They list several developmentally appropriate books for children ages birth to five.

References:

Every Child Ready to Read at Your Library. American Library Association, 2004. www.ala.org.

ALA literary award winners announced

The American Library Association announced this year’s literary award winners in January. For the winners of this year’s Caldecott, Newbery, Printz awards, and more visit www.ala.org.

YARP South Dakota Teen Choice Award deadline is March 31

The YARP South Dakota Teen Choice Award is generating great participation. Voting has already surpassed last year’s results and votes are still coming in every day! There are still a few weeks left to vote so make sure your teens have their votes in by midnight March 31. Winners will be announced during National Library Week.

The Cornerstone monthly e-newsletter is created by the South Dakota State Library. For more information on how to be a part of this newsletter, please contact us via e-mail with your questions and ideas.